St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-27
Entering Vigorous Protest
Against Orders Reducing
Freight Rates.
Citizens Of Towns Along /. &
M. Division Who Insist
on the Reduction.
This Is To Be Made a Test
Case Of the Commits
Sion's Powers.

Sparring match before the railway COM
mission yesterday. The trouble was
over the proposed reduction of rates on
the Iowa 81 Minnesota division of the
road named, by the commissioners.
The change proposed amounts to about
10 per cent, land the officials entered the
loudest kind of a pr0tes t. There were
present Roswell Miller, general man
freight agent; j. W. Carey, of Milwau-
kee, general solicitor, and J. G. Boyden,
general Northwestern freight agent.
The cities that want the reduction were
represented by Hon. j. M. Burlingame,
of OwatOnna; Hon. A. ID. Keys of Fari
bault; Hon. o. F. Perkins, of North
field; Hon. T. A. Noble, of Northfield;
c. ?. Carpenter, of Pennington, and
Eric Olson, who was watching out
for the interests of tile. farmers
in general and taking occasions
sible. Mr.. Carey did the talking at the
forenoon session, making. a two-hotr ar
gument on the question of state inter
ference i'll fixing rates, as a general
proposition. He held that this sort of
thing was all wrong anyway and
claimed that the rate fixed by this par
ticular act of the commission would put
an altogether unreasonable rate i'm OPP.
Grafton. The case in. hand was of the
utmost Importance as the Milwaukee
road would make 80 80 -.
THIS A TEST CASE
of the right of the state commission to
ffXsrates. He said that the principle
which should govern, if the commission
have power to fix rates, is the reason
ableneSS OF such rates as compared with
rates of other roads in other places SIM
ilarly situated. a reasonable rate is a
rate that will pay operating expenses
and reasonable profit on the capital in
vested. In 1856 the Milwaukee company
received on this division gross in
crease of 1852, 4S2.G2 for tlie LAT miles, or
53,745 per mile. The gross income on the
whole system was about $1,000 per mile.
Now the rates are 25 per cent. below
1886. Tne operating expenses of this
division for 1856 were 60 per cent. of the
gross earnings, leaving 81, ass per mile.
That part of the road is inortgaged at
SIS, 600 per mile at per cent. requiring
Sl,750 per mile to pay the interest. TAX
ing the operating expenses from the.
gross income it does not leave enough
to pay the interest, to say nothing of
dividends. In the afternoon j. M. Bur
lingame began the talk in favor of the
commissions act. One of the principal
points he made was that unless the
rates were reduced according to the
commissions action, the niillerS i'm the
towns along the Iowa and Minnesota
division would suffer. Mr.. Burlingame
claimed that the present rates were vir-
tually prohibitory on the milIers, who
were not givel, an equal show with Min
neapolis millers. He spoke of mills at
several places along the line that had
been forced to close.
When O. f. parkjnS Vho fOlIOunI
: Mr.Burlingame,g got well into his speech,
there were
SEVERAL SPICY POINTS.
Mr.. Perkins began by saying: II want
to know If there is to be new hearing
on this case after all the speeches are
made-after ali this pleading is DONE
GCommissioner Austin-We do not so under
stand it.
"Oh, then, this all consists of talk, does it,,
Well. want to say that this entertainment
to-day has been very different from what l
had expected. I had supposed that Mr..
Bird would produce some facts and figures
to show the commission that rates proposed
are too low. Instead of this Mr.. Carey ii
railroad attorney, makes two-hour talk lie
thinks the rates would be too low. / tought
there would be something here to show that
it would be. Why, Mr.. Carey is the roau $ at.
torney; he has been for thirty years, and he
has been imported here to-day to express his
belief that the rates are too low"
Mr.. Carey-I have produced facts to show
what want to prove to the commission.
Mr.. Perkins-Yes, you have produced facts
in y2ur way. but you have produced them as
a railroad attorney and as man that has
been railroad attorney for thirty years II
you had lived in Faribault or Northfield and
had seen those towns gradually being killed
Off by the Milwaukee road, you would think
differently, though as railroad attorney you
might talk the same. Faribault, by kicking
and by the railroad law, has saved $50, GOO
on freight within year. If the city had
tn hht-n ,Noth anti
money on bonds the city would have been
crushed. SO, claim the road has virtually
robbed the town of that amount heretofore
| hear a great deal about Mr. Boyden They.
say he is sharper than any other man i'll the
railroad business. Why, he can kill North. ,
field if he wants to.
Continuing. Mr.. Perkins said that the
growth of st. Paul and Minneapolis was
no marvel. The railroad had -been haul
ing for the big cities at less money than
it could afford to and taking it out of the.
way towns. "You pay. dividends on
your common stock, your preferred
stock and -, ....s
YOUR WATERED STOCK.
and you take it out of us down in the
small towns. You railroad men do this,''
said Mr.. Perkins, getting somewhat
warm and pointing his finger toward
the officials.
You are talking about something that has
nothing to do with the question: interrupted
Mr. Carey r.. = =.
.'Talk is cheap You gave it to us for two
hours this forenoon" retorted Mr.. Perkins.
1.-The millers that are getting so much
sympathy don't seem to make any com
plaint," said Mr.. Carey.
They don't dare to- replied Mr.. Perkins
They know that if they take a. prominent
part in this matter they will be made to suf- 1
fer for it at the hands of the railroad. They
want to kick as bad as anybody
A. b. Carpenter made a talk, in which
he tried to disSect the annual report of
the road to the commission, and he was
followed by A. d. Keys, of Faribault.
He made very quiet kind of argument,
in which he said that the 25 per cent.
reduction under the interstate law had
been of great advantage to the business
of the town. He denied that the bust
ness men who wanted the rates reduced
were anarchists against the road, and it
was beneath the dignity of the gray
hairs of the counsel for the road to in
sinuate any such thing.
The old question of transit rates
came up and Erick Olson made the re-
mark that the farmers didn't want the
'transit.''
Mr.. Carey-There you damn your whole
position, if you fix n regular pro rata. You
say you don't want the transit but know
you do.
Erick Olson-You say, then that YOU are
the guardians of the people of this state.
have lived here since 90, and know what
I'm talking about when l say we don't want
1t. S0
The closing talk was made by Mr..
Carey, who went over the points made
by the several gentlemen, and dissected
them more or less finely. lie claimed
that if the commission insisted on fixing
the rates for the Milwaukee road, the
result would be q general depreciation
of the stock i'll the Eastern markets.
He thought that unless it could be rea-
sonably shown that there was great
wrong to be righted, it would not be
hest 10 Slalrp and Shnnlc the w h0lC